Back in July 2024, the first time I saw it on Facebook, I laughed. Siya ba ‘yan? At ganoon ba talaga suminghot ng cocaine? At saan, kailan, na-shoot ang video na ‘yan?
The very same SONA day it was released by U.S.-based DDS vlogger Maharlika on social media, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) pronounced it a “poorly designed deepfake video that can easily be identified using simple tools openly available online.” https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/
The next day in a joint presscon, the NBI and the PNP shared the results of their “video spectral analysis”: the ears of the man in the video [the tragal notch and the antitragus, both on the outer parts of the ear] and those of BBM are different. https://verafiles.org/
Brig. Gen. Ronnie Francis Cariaga, Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) director, said they had the same findings after an artificial intelligence detection tool revealed significant discrepancies in the facial features of Marcos and the person in the video, such as the size of the ears, shape of the eyes and nose and sideburns.
Citing their analysis, Cariaga said the video is fake and was created using artificial intelligence (AI). https://www.philstar.com/
VERA Files Fact Check went for an independent assessment, reached out to AI detection experts of the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) part of the India-based Misinformation Combat Alliance. Three tools — Sensity AI, HIVE, and TrueMedia — found the video to be suspicious, bearing traces of manipulation at multiple points of the video’s run-time. Read ‘Polvoron’ video crumbles, AI experts find traces of facial manipulation.
The DAU also shared analysis from their partner GetReal Labs, which was co-founded by University of California-Berkeley professor Hany Farid and his team specializing in digital forensics and AI detection.
“[T]he human ear is a fairly decent biometric. Because a face-swap deepfake is only eyebrow to chin and ear to ear, the ears can often be used as indication of a fake. Attached is a two-frame animation (1 screenshot from the video, 1 from President Marcos’s recent state of the nation address) in which you can see some differences in the shape of the ear. The structure of the face and the hairline also seem quite different.”
That was in Sept 2024 pa when Vera Files confirmed the PNP and NBI findings. Not that it ever stopped the DDS from screaming “b(v)angag!” at every opportunity, accompanied by calls for BBM to resign or for people power to oust him, like father like son. The most consistent and strident calls coming from vlogger Maharlika and former RRD spokesman now self-exile Harry Roque.
Not that they were ever able to raise the requisite crowds clamoring for the same, but they never dropped the advocacy either. In fact, tne DDS patriarch’s surprise rendition to The Hague raised the pitch of the vlogger and the exile to hysterical heights so it did not surprise that the latest TRIcomm hearing on vloggers and fake news saw fit to acknowledge and go public with an affidavit by vlogger Pebbles Talakera that related what she knew of the video “para itama ang mali” — basically that Roque is behind it daw.
Of course Roque has denied it, accusing government of a “political witch hunt” and Pebbles of “fake news.”
Ang totoo: Taong 2022 pa ay usap usapan na sa vlog ni Maharlika ang polvoron video. … Isa lang ang sigurado: Ka-jamming ni Marcos Jr ang kumuha at source ng video, at ang taong ito na malapit kay PBBM ay ibinigay ang video kay Maharlika. https://www.facebook.com/HarryRoque/
Maharlika and Roque insist that the video is authentic, “no evidence of editing,” according daw to forensic experts who prefer to remain unnamed except in a court of law. Maharlika has long been daring the BBM admin to take her to court, charge her with cyberlibel, or something like that, if they’re so sure it’s fake. And many observers even agree, na dapat patulan na, or it might fester, or something like that.
Umm, but that would be, like, sponsoring her debut in mainstream media to which she has been denied entry so far — nauna pa nga si Pebbles. Which is just as well because hindi pang mainstream media ang lenggwahe niya, na nagiging medyo bastos at bulgar lalo na pag may kinakagalitan siya at na-ha-highblood. Wouldn’t it be wiser to keep her in her place?
Of course, it would be a different matter if she were to come back and face the music here. Mainstream media tiyak ang landing niya [bleep bleep]. At kung bitbit niya ang AI forensic experts nila ni Harry, it would be a blast to see them facing off with Vera Files‘ DAU experts.
I’d place my bet on Vera Files. I suspect that whoever shared the video with Maharlika was pulling her leg, and she fell for it. OR maybe she’s always known that it’s a deepfake but it’s good enough for destab purposes? And for the DDS?